Roulette is a popular wagering game played in casinos and other gaming establishments. Avid players are generally open to, and sometimes specifically seek out, new and more interesting ways to play roulette, particularly when the reward for a winning outcome at the end of a round of play, or the odds of achieving a winning outcome, may be enhanced. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,798, issued Apr. 28, 1998, to Adams et al., discloses a progressive side bet for roulette that a player wins when the player bets on the same winning number four times in a row, an amount of the winnings being a fixed amount that grows with successive rounds; a progressive pot, less a rake; or a randomly selected amount. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,810, issued Aug. 27, 1991, to Williams, discloses a progressive side bet for roulette that a player wins when the same winning number occurs three and four games in a row, an amount of the winnings being an amount accumulated in a progressive pot. U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,800, issued Apr. 28, 1998, to Huard et al., discloses a progressive side bet applicable to roulette that a player wins when a randomly selected number is the winning number or when the player is simply randomly selected from a number of players or player positions, which may further involve randomly selecting the amount of the prize as a fixed amount or as a percentage of a progressive pot. U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,431, issued Feb. 17, 1998, to Ornstein, discloses a streak side wager for roulette that a player wins when the player achieves a preselected number of consecutive wins on the same conventional roulette wager (e.g., odds, evens, red, black, split, box, specific number, etc.). U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2005/0020347, published Jan. 27, 2005, to Moshal, discloses a progressive side wager for roulette that a player wins when the outcome of a round and the outcome of the immediately preceding round are identical, an amount of the winnings being a fixed multiple of the amount of the wager or an entire amount of a progressive pot. U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2005/0192076, published Sep. 1, 2005, to Lowery, discloses a side bet for roulette that a player wins a fixed amount when a preselected outcome occurs in two consecutive rounds.
In addition, casino operators are always seeking new, eye-catching roulette systems and improvements that can leverage their existing facilities to better advantage. Generally, the popularity of gaming machines and systems that present roulette games to players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine or table and the intrinsic entertainment value of the system relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing systems and the expectation of winning at each gaming system is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting systems. Shrewd operators consequently strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting games, features, and enhancements available because such offerings attract frequent play and hence increase profitability to the operator. Therefore, there is a continuous need for gaming machine manufacturers to continuously develop new games and improved gaming enhancements that will attract frequent play through enhanced entertainment value to the player.